Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed

October 2018, Live Register Figures

5 Nov 2018

On November 2nd, 2018 the Central Statistics Office (CSO) published the Live Register figures for October, 2018 and it contained 199,247 people. The last time the register was below 200,000 was April 2008, when it stood at 195,598 people.

41.7% of the Register, or 82,998 people, have been on it for more than a year, 18,592 fewer people than in October 2017. Young people, aged under 25 years account for 6.6% of those on the Register for more than a year. The age group with the highest percentage are those aged 45-54 years, at 21.1%. Looking at these figures from a gender perspective, women account for 40.8% and men 59.2%. Looking at the figures from a combination of age and gender, the largest group are men aged 35-44 years, at 12.8% of the Register.

Of the people who have been on the Register for more than a year, 47,772 people have been on it for three years or more, which represents 57.6% of those on the Register for more than a year, and 24% of the whole Register.

Looking at this figure from the perspective of age and gender, men aged 45-54 years are the largest group, accounting for 13.4%. Looking at it from a scheme perspective, Jobseekers Allowance applications account for 73%, and Other Registrants account for 27%.

According to the Annex Table there were 53,308 people participating on Activation Programmes in September 2018. In September 2017 there were 4,325 more participants. The programmes that recorded fewer participants in 2018 were the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance; DSP Part-time Job Incentive Scheme; JobBridge; Gateway; Community Employment: and the Back to Education Allowance.

The two programmes that recorded some increase over the year were: TUS, the Community Work Placement Initiative (133), which is rolled out under the auspices of the Local Development companies; and FAS (Solas) Full-time Training for Unemployed People (71), which is rolled-out through the Education and Training Boards.